Cadres of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) abducted Alex Paul Menon, the Collector of Chhattisgarh’s troubled Sukma District at about 4:30 Pm on Saturday evening. Mr. Menon was returning from a village meeting when a group of between 15 and 20 Maoists stopped his entourage at Manjipara village, about 8 km from Kerlapal, a village on National Highway 221.
Sukma’s Superintendent of Police, Abhishek Shandilya said the Maoists also killed two personal security officers who accompanied the Collector.
Mr. Menon’s abduction comes at a time when, just across the state border, the Odisha government is involved in protracted negotiations to free Jhina Hikaka, an MLA who was kidnapped by the Maoists on March 24. Earlier this month, the guerillas released two Italians who had also been kidnapped in Odisha. Last year, the party abducted the R. Vineel Krishna, the Collector of Malkangiri, an Odisha district bordering Sukma. Mr. Krishna was released after the state government agreed to a list of demands.
“We are organizing a search party to look for the Collector. We have not received any demands from the Maoists as yet,” Mr. Shandilya said.
“We were conducting a Gram Swaraj Abhiyaan across the district and so we had been traveling with the Collector since the morning,” said Surendra Prasad Vaid, Sukma’s Sub Divisional Magistrate, in an interview over the telephone, “In the morning, the Collector visited the interior villages near Badde Setti and Sam Setti on a motorcycle and returned to Kerlapal for lunch.”
After lunch, Mr. Vaid said, a team of about 25 to 30 civil administration officials accompanied Mr. Menon to a farmers meeting in Manjipara. “Ten minutes after we arrived, the shooting started,” said Mr. Vaid, “As the crowd dispersed, a group of Maoists came and first shot the Collector’s guard. The other guard tried to run, but the Maoists killed him as well.”
Mr. Vaid said the Collector quickly got into his Tata Safari vehicle and started to leave when three Maoists stopped his vehicle. “There were three of us in the car when they stopped us and started shouting ‘Who is the Collector? Who is the Collector’. The Collector identified himself, and they took him away,” said Mr. Vaid.
Keywords: Maoists, Chhattisgarh, district collector, kidnap
This is a stupid act by the kidnappers. Kidnapping an IAS Officer, taking out precious lives of two security heroes - the official who have come to a village for the betterment of farmers and part of the same society that these extremists are 'fighting' for is utter stupidity. With this act these extremists have lost the last bit of sympathy the society if at all they ever had. High time the government and military take full control of the situation and stop further overtures by these anti-social elements.
by such deeds they are leaving only negative impression on guys of india .... and in the situation of trouble they will not get condolence from the aam admi of india....
it shamefull for our country, if district magistrate is not safe then what to say about other people. Centre gov. should look into this matter seriously and announce a war against these frustrated and coward maoists.
This is the second time such an incident is taking place. Government
needs to take steps to secure officers and bottom line staff members of
these areas. These incidents if are very frequent can discourage
youngsters from aspiring these services.
its like a societal disaster that we have today.maoists dont have a
certain path to deal with their ideas.they are in extreme frustation to
do things .kidnapping of collector by maoists sounds crazy&shows lack of
objectives of maoists.if odisha govt take a decision to free maoists who
were in jail,it would be a great blunder.govt should initiate stringent
procedure to get out of this turmoil.
With continuous occurances of such events of abduction one thing is
clear that the maoist are persistently trying to be in the limelight.
This is an attempt to show their strength and thus convey a message to
the govt that you have to take us seriously . Although such steps and
the killing they retort to is least acceptable. But yet the people who
are abducted should try to figure out what genuinely is needed by the
maoist(which is one of the purpose behind such kidnappings). They
should convey it to the govt and help find a solution which should be
quick and free of political and bureaucratic delays. Lastly security
measures should be tightened to avoid loopholes leading to such
abductions.
i dont know how this helps in achieving their(naxals) aims(an egalitarian society or whatever it may be), i mean killing two innocent police guards and kidnapping a bureaucrat who genuinely works for the benefit of the people. i think its time they come out of the woods and do something more useful like being an RTI activist.
Again Maoists showing their real face!
they are doing very wrong by doing this they are killing only innocent people. the state and central govt have to take a strong action against these people by hook or krook a strong force must be use against these. a combined action should take place by ib , commondos ,stf , itbp and etc
after this incident ,the govt of india should take necessary steps to annihilate this culpable maoist gangs.
It's a big shameful thing for bodyguards and the police who can't save
the first citizen of a district . See how a common people can put hopes
on our public who can't even save their own official who is the highest
civil official officer in our country by the law.
What in the world is going on in this state. No law and order. This state deserves a central rule.
What an irony - this collector is kidnapped on 21st april i.e., civil
services day when the PM of the country asked civil servants to take
tough decisions! If the government can not provide adequate security to
a District Collector, what can ordinary citizens expect?
Maoists are now making it a practice of capturing politically important figures or government officials to free more terrorists. Why does India have policy of negotiating with terrorists? Haven't we learned from our mistakes in the past. Will India do the same when a street person is kidnapped? No. What makes these politicians so special. Freeing only making things worse as they get emboldened by their act.
The news is very shocking. Tomorrow they will demand release of some
more maoists and by this way this will take away all their personnels
from jail. Again it is the question of the life of honest IAS officer.
This will put question mark on the efforts taken by sincere officers to
develop maoist affected areas. Government should do something.
This is what happens when you surrender to anti-social elements. They get
encouraged that nothing can happen to them as long as they have VIPs in their
custody. Indian politicians have forgotten how to rule. They let these anti-social elements get away in same manner as they themselves do.
The abduction cases by the Maoist are increasing day by day. This is a serious issue that
need urgent attention by the government. Adequate safety should be provided for the civil
servants that are are serving this nation and other representative of the people. The
demands that the Maoist pursue in exchange of the abducted will increase unless the
government unleash the might to eradicate the menace of naxilism.
So long as these corrupt politicians who swindle public money like 2G Adarsh Comon wealth and the court cases go year after and by the time even the preliminary investigation started these politicians hide their wealth in Swiss banks the Maoists will be growing Even some Central Minsisters without attending to offical work they go on foreign tours repeatedly and the PM keeps quiet without reprimanding the Ministers and preventing them citing coaation Dharma The corrupt officials they become " Yahta Raja thaa thaa Prajahas (So the king so the subjects) Arachaic rules formulated during the Raj are followed strictly. While all the big wigs who got Presidential award take pictures with the President ignoring a farmer who got padma Sri award. This president wants 80 lakhs of Govt. money free to build a house You know how much money she spent omn foreign tours 200 crores "What good came at last quoth young Peter Kin, I do not know it was a great success" ( to quote an English Poem)
It only seems that Naxals are regrouping and realigning. For the loss
of cadres in encounter, they are now trying to recruit by kidnap and
blackmail. It seems the top political brass is just interested only in
their security, which comes from tax payers money. Had they an iota of
concern, they'd have by now an elite force to for intervention and
rescue of hostages be it in India or Somalia... Once we use to have
covert operation teams...
In my perspective, it would be easy for both the victims and the
Maoists if all prisoned cadres are released. That way, the effort of
the naxals and torment of the victims be saved...
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